Today, Axel Springer Polska launched a new quality daily newspaper called “Dziennik – Polska, Swiat, Europa” (‘Daily – Poland, World, Europe’).
At the first glance the new daily looks very similar to Agora’s “Gazeta Wyborcza” in terms of size, format and content. It contains a bit more photos and graphics. The price of both newspapers is the same, PLN 1.5. They are targeted at the same audience as well. However, the new publication is thinner than “GW”, with 48 pages versus 55. It also falls short of the existing title, having fewer supplements, such as on jobs advertisements, reporters magazine “Duzy Format” and collectors items, such as a pre-war Warsaw city plan, which all came with today’s issue of “GW.
Based on this, we believe that “Dziennik”, being of similar format to “GW” but not a better product, is likely to fail to create its own audience niche. Expectations appear very high, after the launch of innovative Fakt and Newsweek Polska, and sales may fall short. As all the bad news relating to the ASP newspaper launch appears to be in the price already, we reiterate our Buy rating for the stock, with a PLN 60.0 fair value estimate.